BOSTON – A former Transportation Security Officer from Cape Cod pleaded guilty and was sentenced last week in federal court in Boston to fraudulently obtaining over $30,000 in workers’ compensation.
Richard A. Mariani, 76, of West Dennis, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud in obtaining federal employee compensation and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelly to six months of probation and ordered to pay $38,052 in restitution to the Department of Labor.
From February 2002 to February 2011, Mariani was employed as a Transportation Security Officer at the Barnstable Municipal Airport. After a workplace injury in 2011 that he claimed rendered him unable to work and imposed severe limitations on physical activities, Mariani began collecting workers’ compensation benefits.
However, in August 2015, Mariani began providing lawn irrigation services to various clients who paid him in cash for his work. In doing so, Mariani was engaged in many of the physical activities he previously claimed to be unable to do.
In addition, he lied on a form to the U.S. Department of Labor stating that he did not earn any income other than his disability benefits. For August 2015 to August 2016, Mariani fraudulently received $38,052 in federal benefits.
The charging statues provides for a sentence of no greater than one year in prison, one year of supervised release, a fine of $100,000, or twice the gross gain/loss, whichever is greater, and restitution.
Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
